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In most (if not all) papers I read there was already pseudocode, which is actually better than real programming language, because it lets you express your algor
by xyzzyz 15y ago
In most (if not all) papers I read there was already pseudocode, which is actually better than real programming language, because it lets you express your algorithm in a concise way without all the real world overhead, like initialization, allocation, etc. If you cannot implement algorithm yourself by reading its description and pseudocode, it means that either you don't fully understand what you just read, or your programming skills need some polishing, and you should be rather reading textbooks than research papers for a while.
Also keep in mind that papers are written for the colleagues in the field to read, and not for the laymen, so it's no surprise that authors use the terminology familiar to people in the field. It makes no sense to write research papers with laymen in mind, because 99.999% of them don't care and the remaining 0.001% will learn terminology soon enough.
Also, you really should not expect that reading research papers will be as easy as reading newspapers, don't you agree?
- KaeseEs 15y agoOftentimes, it is easy to overlook whether that real-world overhead affects the asymptotic performance of your algorithm in either an ideal sense or a pragmatic one. If memory allocation were free or memory were infinite, true constant time rather than amortized constant time push back on dynamic arays/vectors would be possible, etc. Also, initialization often affects correctness, so it's much less frequently skipped even in pseudocode for an algorithm.